Canoas, Brazil. Salão de Atos do Unilasalle Canoas, Centro Universitário La Salle, Av. Victor Barreto, 2288, no Centro de Canoas, ao lado da Estaçao Canoas La salle do Trensurb (+55 51 3476-8500)---Richard Stallman will be speaking as part of the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the city of Canoas.

Nantes, France. Amphithéâtre Kerneis, Université de Nantes, http://2009.rmll.info/-Lieux-d-accueil-.html. This speech will be part of the tenth Rencontre Mondiale du Logiciel Libre and will be open to the public. Richard Stallman will speak about the Free Software Movement, which campaigns for freedom so that computer users can cooperate to control their own computing activities. The Free Software Movement developed the GNU operating system, often erroneously referred to as Linux, specifically to establish these freedoms.

Wellington, New Zealand - Victoria University of Wellington, RHLT 2, in the Rutherford House on the Pipitea Campus. Richard Stallman will explain how software patents obstruct software development. Software patents are patents that cover software ideas. They restrict the development of software, so that every design decision brings a risk of getting sued. Patents in other fields restrict factories, but software patents restrict every computer user. Economic research shows that they even retard progress.